USES OF ELECTRICITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19833, 31 December 1927, Page 10

USES OF ELECTRICITY.

THE WORLD'S FIR.ST SUPPLY. INCIDENT OF 41 YEARS AGO. [fuom our own correspondent.] LONDON, Nov. IG. A charming electrical bouquet made its appearance when the new clubhouse of the Electrical Association for Women at Kensington Court was opened by the president, Viscountess Astor, M.P. Lady Astor was handed a sheaf of water-lilies made of mother of pearl, in. which each flower was illuminated by £► small bulb. The fitting had to be connected with the plug in a table before tho flowers were illuminated. 41 All the work done by tho servants is undone by tho sons," was one of Lady Astor's sayings. ." Every woman knows," she went on, amid laughter, "that the most difficult thing in a house is, a man. Electric equipment can never get rid of that, even though it makes life easier in other respects. Wo women . welcome anything that helps to lighten ths burden of the home. Every woman who keeps house knows that it is the men who make it untidy. Although we have got the vote wo women, have a long way to go before we get a positive square deal. Men see a red light when they find that things they have called their own—like intelligence—may be given to women, too." Colonel R. E. Crompton said that the electrical business in London would never have been started had it not been for his wife. "We switched on forty'one years ago," he said, " and that was the first public. supply in the world. The ladies were our first propagandists, and from the outset we got most useful assistance from them. Wo "were looked on as mad cranks to be avoided. People kept on the other side of the i?oad when they saw us. We won through because electricity is a clean, simple science." The new clubhouse, which contains a model electric kitchen, is on the sito of Colonel Crompton's original generating station.